


The Difficult Subject of Chocolate Cake

by WinglessCrows



Series: Through the Eyes of a Cook [43]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Childhood, Childhood Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-05-27 08:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15020321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinglessCrows/pseuds/WinglessCrows
Summary: A story of the time Sanji was a student, learning both cooking and fighting from his mentor.





	The Difficult Subject of Chocolate Cake

In the early days of the Baratie there could be days between each customer. The restaurant was not yet famous and sometimes people who happened to come by wouldn't even register that it was a restaurant at all. It seemed that Zeff and his little eggplant had the most customers when they once or twice in a month stopped at an island to restock. People began assuming that they weren't as much  _a restaurant at sea_ but more  _a travelling restaurant._ Kind of like a wandering circus.

Of course, the time without customers wasn't wasted. Zeff used all their spare time to teach Sanji everything he knew about cooking and his eggplant absorbed the knowledge like a dry sponge. Zeff also taught Sanji how to fight, the  _proper_  way to fight. Sanji sometimes felt that he had to relearn everything he thought he knew about fighting, but unlike in his cooking lessons, Zeff was patient with Sanji. He rarely yelled when Sanji instinctively tried to defend with his arms, and he never  _ever_ resorted to violence when teaching Sanji how to fight. Cooking lessons were different though. Sanji was certain that he'd been injured more trying to cook than trying to fight.

Today was a fighting day... or rather, fighting hour. Sanji had been working on his pastry and baking skills for the past month and he was currently waiting for his hopefully excellent chocolate cake to be baked to perfection. In the time Sanji had been working on the dough, Zeff had cleared the dining area and as soon as Sanji had put the cake in the oven, he'd started the combat lesson.

As Sanji was still  _a small eggplant_ Zeff mostly taught him how to defend himself. It hadn't escaped Zeff that his student already had some prior experience with fighting and was rather capable of holding his own in a minor fight, but he was far away from being able to fight in a way that was proper for a chef. Zeff was currently teaching Sanji how to defend against a blow by using kicks as a way of defence.

"You're small so use the rotation to build momentum and speed," Zeff said as he caught Sanji's kick with his right hand. Sanji sometimes thought that Zeff the chef and Zeff the martial artist were two different people. Zeff the martial artist gave much better advice and was much nicer.

Sanji spun on one leg and kicked Zeff's hand again with the other. Another hand found itself on Sanji's back and urged him to straighten up.

"You'll hurt yourself if your form is off," Zeff said and Sanji repeated the motion, this time focusing on his stance.

"Now you're lacking power," Zeff explained patiently. Had this been a cooking lesson he would have thrown something after Sanji, but instead he just made a gesture, making Sanji repeat the move. Sanji found it hard to balance between rotating while still maintaining power and posture, but when the timer in the kitchen set off, Zeff reassured him that he had improved. Sanji smiled.

Sanji carefully took the cake out of the oven and while it cooled off he started working on the icing and decoration components. Sanji wanted to use the fresh strawberries they had acquired that same morning, but Zeff's request had been a chocolate cake that was very rich in chocolate, but not overwhelming. Sanji had originally thought that the task had been rather easy, but upon putting the recipe together he had quickly realized that it wasn't quite so. Not only did he need a balance of different types of chocolates without making the cake too heavy, he also needed a balance of sweetness. If he used to much sugar the cake could become borderline inedible, but if he used too little the bitterness of the dark chocolate would dominate the taste.

Sanji's answer to the cake problems would lie in the icing. As of now, the chocolate cake was very standard and not fit for a first class restaurant, but Sanji had a plan. The strawberries would add a layer of freshness and contrast with the softness of the cake. He'd add sea salt to the chocolate icing to contrast with the chocolate in the cake and then lastly sprinkle dark chocolate flakes over the cake to have a few bursts of bitterness to counter the sweet nature of the cake itself.

Sanji was quite proud of his solution, but was slightly unsure if it would work. Maybe he was too ambitious and having three components for the decorations would be too much? Sanji decided to try it anyway, because if it worked Zeff would definitely be proud of him.

Sanji had quickly found that he loved Zeff's compliments. He didn't give them often, but to a person like Sanji who had so rarely been complimented before, he treasured each compliment like a poor person would a diamond. And every time Zeff gave a compliment, Sanji knew it was well earned.

Zeff was sat on a stool not far from where Sanji was working. Observing and judging his every move. Under his gaze and slightly exhausted after a late night work out, Sanji worked slowly, but it seemed that Zeff was ready to let it slide just this once.

As Sanji put the finishing touches on the cake he could feel that bubbly sensation in his stomach. He was proud of this cake. The icing had the right texture and tasted delightful with the strawberries. The strawberries were evenly spaced out on the cake and the chocolate sprinkles looked liked they'd been placed at random, yet not quite. Basically, it looked amazing and Sanji was sure that each component tasted great as well. The only thing left was to hope it all worked well together.

"Done!" Sanji exclaimed proudly and Zeff was immediately next to him, examining the cake.

"Well, if it tastes as good as it looks, we may be able to put this on our menu," Zeff said and smiled down at Sanji.

Sanji cut them a slice each and the taste test began. Upon taking his first bite, Sanji knew he'd made something great. He looked to Zeff and saw his teacher smile at him. Words were not needed. Sanji had made something wonderful and that was all there was to it. Sanji was proud and happy.

Zeff helped Sanji clean up the kitchen and before letting him go to bed, he had him try the kick again. Sanji had still not figured out how to make that work. Every time he got the stance right, he lacked power, and if he tried to maintain his posture he couldn't build up momentum in the rotation. Sanji had asked Zeff to show him how to do it, and was slightly annoyed that even when Zeff kicked with his wooden leg, he made it look effortless.

"I won't sleep until I got it down," Sanji panted and Zeff raised an eyebrow. Sanji was usually not the most enthusiastic person when it came to combat training, and only ever pulled all nighters (which always resulted in an afternoon nap, because small eggplants need sleep to grow big and strong) when he wanted to perfect a recipe or cooking technique.

"Well," Zeff sighed (he had always been bad at telling Sanji off when he got particularly determined), "We're leaving the island tomorrow morning, so don't overdo it."

He patted Sanji on the head and went towards his cabin, "Concentrate on keeping your form so that you don't hurt yourself," was the last thing he said before Sanji was left alone in the dining area.

Sanji tried repeating the kick for about half an hour (using a cushioned chair as target), but he just couldn't do it. Eventually he had gotten particularly frustrated and put so much force into the kick that he had fallen flat on his butt due to not being able to keep his balance.

At some point, and Sanji was suspecting this was due to lack of sleep, he began seeing the problem less as a matter of fighting stances and such, and more like a chocolate cake. There were many components that needed to work together for the cake to be complete and it was really no different than doing this one move. Later Sanji would not be able to explain how cake and kicks were alike, but at the time it made sense.

Zeff had given Sanji two tasks; make a chocolate cake and perfect a kick that drew power from rotation, but kept his body steady to avoid straining his muscles. The chocolate cake problem had been solved by adding a number of components to the main base. If the kick itself, Sanji thought profoundly, was the main base, then the rotation and the stance were the added components. But, Sanji realized in his frenzied mind of kicks and cakes, the chocolate cake had had three components added on top, while the kick, as of now, only had two. Which meant that logically, Sanji was missing an element. If the rotation was the sea salt chocolate icing that gave the cake an edge, and the stance was the dark chocolate which became part of the foundation, then what was strawberry?

Strawberries had been the non-chocolate thing in the chocolate cake. The one thing Zeff had  _not_  requested for, but had been delighted with when Sanji had added them. So perhaps,  _perhaps,_ Sanji needed to do something different from Zeff. Maybe he needed to add another component that was non-chocolate flavoured.

Sanji was so amazed with his own idea that he spent a good minute just laughing and grinning maniacally in the dining area before he started setting his plan in motion. When Zeff would later ask him about this, he would once again blame it on lack of sleep.

It took Sanji a good number of ideas to find the right thing he needed to add to the move to perfect it. He had tried moving his arms during rotation to add speed while keeping the stance and he had tried changing the stance, but he found that what worked was adding a jump. Adding a jump forced Sanji's body to keep the stance, because if he didn't he would trip. It also added a layer of speed and made the kick more powerful. Sanji started the stance on his left foot, while keeping his right leg straight in front of him. He would then jump to stand on his right foot and use the rotation created by the shift to kick with his left leg. It was brilliant.

When Zeff got up the next morning Sanji eagerly told him that all he had needed to make the kick work was to add strawberries and Zeff just looked perplexed. When his little eggplant didn't elaborate but just showed him the improved jump kick, Zeff gave him a pat on his head and asked what he wanted for breakfast.


End file.
